Software Review: TOSHIBA Text to Speech for Pocket PC
Test of the application that is bundled with Toshiba series e800 devices. [version 1]
We are reviewing here application "Text Speech" version 1.05 made by Toshiba Corporation. This application is bundled with English versions of Toshiba e800. Since Toshiba e800 uses high-resolution (640x480) we present below screenshots that are just a part of the whole screen (not full screenshots, which would take too much space and would render the review unreadable).
When you buy new PDA very often some little details may become the deciding argument, that argument that convinces you that given PDA is really something for you. The fact that Toshiba includes nice Text-to-speech program together with their Toshiba e800 Pocket PCs could be such an additional argument.
After installation the program takes approximately 5 MB of memory and in the programs folder one can notice 3 new icons:
If you tap on the "Speech Settings" icon, you can see the settings dialogs that is sub-divided into 3 parts - "Reading Settings":
... and then "Mail Settings":
... and an "About" dialog.
Right away from the observation of settings one can notice that this program is not very sophisticated - user cannot for example define it´s own words or pronounciations. By default there is also only one voice for text-to-speech engine - male voice. Well, it may be quite simple, but it doesn´t matter, that it is not satisfactory! When you tap on the "Mail Speech" application you can see this:
... or in other words: ability to read from this program emails in the inbox! When you use Wi-Fi and have a special email account just for your Pocket PC, that sometimes just sending emails to your Pocket PC - for the purpose of reading them aloud with this program - may be good idea. With this "Mail Speech" application - you can do just that, and hence it is in a Pocket PC - a mobile device - you can even take a walk and listen to your emails outdoors!
Well, for many people however the "Text Speech" application will be the main way how they will use this text-to-speech engine from Toshiba. The program itself doesn´t look complicated:
... and generally it allows for 2 things: reading aloud texts that are copied to the edit field from the clipboard (through virtual keyboard and the "Ctrl-V" sequence), or using Tools / Open menu to open any text file with text. Please note while the program is not reading the background of the edit field is white (as on the picture above) but when the program is currently reading the text the background becomes gray:
... and the sentence that is curently being read by the
text-to-speech engine is being highlighted!
Good things in the program:
very clear and easily comprehensible voice generated by the text-to-speech engine
ability to read texts from file, clipboard and e-mails - including "Pause" button, so that you can take for example incoming call and continue listening later
Bad things in the program:
no ability to define your own pronounciations for words or characters
no ability to read text from third programs (like eBooks in Microsoft Reader) - however we cannot blame it on Toshiba - it is rather Microsoft´s limitation that exists in the operating system (Microsoft´s own "Voice Command" also has text-to-speech feature but also doesn´t allowto read texts from third programs - it doesn´t even allow to read texts from files!)
loudspeakers in Toshiba e800 are weak (it´s not a fault of the program itself though) so sometimes, particularly in loud environments one is forced to use headphones
Conclusion: it is a simple but very usable program. Good quality text-to-speech technology for Pocket PC has become reality.
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